


Darkness Falls

by Skylar0Grace



Category: Castle
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-08
Updated: 2013-04-08
Packaged: 2017-12-07 20:31:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/752785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylar0Grace/pseuds/Skylar0Grace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The differences between Kate Beckett and Nikki Heat can be just as blatant as the similarities.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Darkness Falls

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by cassiebookworm8 over at LJ.

The differences between Kate Beckett and Nikki Heat can be just as blatant as the similarities. Having been up all night, wrapped in the newest Nikki Heat novel, his tired eyes and lethargic limbs are at war with the adrenaline that nearly always pumps through his body whenever he’s with Beckett – even if there’s no danger involved. Her body moves fluidly through the warehouse, gun drawn, but it is only when she bumps into the closely tailing writer that she speaks. Actually, it’s more like a harsh whisper.

“Get out of my way, Castle!”

Her eyebrows are knitted closely together and although she’s angry on the surface, he knows her well enough that he sees the fear underneath. It’s not her safety she’s concerned about; it’s not even his. Her concern lies with the nine-year-old girl that had been taken from her mother when she was crossing the road. The mother had died in the hospital but determination had attached itself to Beckett with so much force that she had hardly slept at all. She spent her days tracking down every lead she could shake loose and her nights pouring through case files until he strolled into the precinct at dawn, coffee in hand, to find her asleep at her desk.

When they enter the last room, the tall, rough-looking suspect raises his gun and Beckett ignores him in favour of the old cupboard door with the new lock. She knows that Esposito and Ryan are right behind her and has every confidence they will take him out before he has a chance to shoot her.

They do.

She pulls once, twice, on the lock before raising her gun and shooting it off to the side, watching as the now defunct lock falls to the ground. In less than a second, she has the latch in her hand and the door open. There’s a moment – it’s only small – where Beckett stares down at the small, huddled girl in the corner, and sees something nobody else does. He takes in the dirty cheeks, streaked by her tears. He notices the rip in her skirt and the blood on her sock. He sees the fear being replaced by relief when the door is opened by someone else.

Whatever she sees is gone before he can begin to understand it and he watches as she leans down and wraps her arms around the small child. Something unsaid passes between them and Beckett picks her up and carries her from the room, the girl’s eyes closed as she tries to erase her memories of the horrors she’s witnessed.

Later that night, as he sits at his computer, he thinks about everything that has happened over the last few hours and is at a loss. How do you translate something as powerful as Kate Beckett into the fictitious Nikki Heat? Even with all of the similarities and differences, one is a Muse for the basis of the other. _Without one_ , he wouldn’t even have the other.

Still, when he dreams that night, it’s Kate he sees.


End file.
